"My heart leaped into my mouth. ’My God, did you hear that?’ asked Bert, breathlessly. ’Keep still—it sounded like a woman’s voice’ said I. We leaned across the rail, straining our eyes, but couldn’t see what was taking place; the landing lay too close under the trees. After the cry, an absolute silence had fallen. This lasted a full minute. Then a man’s voice started up, the same angry, jarring tone ’Give way, boys!’ Almost immediately, we heard the sound of the oars again. "The unexpectedness of the occurrence had held us spellbound; we stood gazing at each other like two wooden images. Then, in the same instant, we found our voices, began to confer hurriedly, and started on the run for the centre of the verandah, where a broad flight of steps led down to the jetty path. At the head of the path we both halted as if transfixed. Someone was coming up from the landing. The moonlight plainly showed it to be a woman. She advanced slowly, stopping now and then, staggering as she walked. When she drew nearer, we could see that she was hatless and empty-handed. She walked like a somnambulist, gazing fixedly on the ground before her, now and then holding out a hand as if to feel the way. At the last turn of the path, she stopped and raised her head. Bert, at my side, made a low strangling sound. Evidently discovering us, she started forward again. Her face was quite terrible. All hope seemed gone from it, like the dead face of a suicide that I once saw; her eyes stared at us blankly, and she clutched with one hand at the bosom of her dress. "’Who is there?’ she asked brokenly. "Bert left my side and flung himself toward her. ’Helen!’ he cried. She would have fallen, but he caught her in his arms. ’Helen!’ said he again, with his face close to hers. "’Bert?’ she asked in eager fearfulness. Her low voice seemed to tear the heart. She gazed at him long and deep, while desperation turned to wonder in her eyes. "For the second time that evening I fled the scene of life’s amazing hazard. This time I hurried down the path with all haste, making for the jetty; by shouting, I should be able to raise the ship and have a boat sent ashore for me. As I glanced back at the corner, I saw Bert help the woman up the steps. I thought I heard her sobbing; but, in a moment, I realized that the sound came from another direction. Off among the trees, in the heavy shadow, someone was uttering smothered, choking cries. I broke into a run. The ways of the land were getting too damnably complicated altogether; I wanted to surround myself again with a safe strip of water. *VII* Nichols reached for another cigar. "And that’s the way he found her" he went on "For it wouldn’t be true to say that she had found him; until the moment in front of the bungalow when he took her in his arms, she hadn’t dreamed that he was there.